An economic plan making "a compelling case for the allocation of resources to do things differently" in the seven western counties from Donegal to Clare will be launched on Monday by the Western Development Commission (WDC).
The plan sets out a £3.7 billion programme for the counties over the next six years. It was drawn up by the economist Mr Alan Gray of Indecon Consultants and has now been endorsed by the commission.
It is said to propose "radical" changes in major policy areas and contains detailed economic data on the seven counties of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Mayo, Galway and Clare.
The plan may spark criticism of the past performances of State agencies as it will highlight the stark contrast in job creation statistics for different regions.
The commission's chief executive, Mr Liam Scollan, said the 200-page document would be fundamentally different from a number of other plans published recently because it was fully costed and set out very clear priorities.
He said it would not necessarily be a popular document because a number of "hard choices" had been made and it was based on a realistic assessment of the funding available. The figure of £3.7 billion comprises money from the EU and the Exchequer, and is based on the seven-county region getting one-fifth of State-wide spending on key economic programmes.
Mr Scollan said the WDC, as the statutory agency charged with spearheading economic and social development in these seven counties, would use the document as its framework and pursue its analysis and recommendations.
"If implemented, it will make a real difference to regional development and will turn around the fortunes of the western economy. It is not a proposal to get resources for more of the same, but to do things in a radically different way," he said.
The plan will set a framework of regional targets, in areas such as job creation, across different sectors. This will be viewed as a challenge to the IDA which, in the past, has not set regional targets on the basis that it cannot tell companies where to locate.
Mr Scollan said the fact that this report put a price tag on every development it proposed would make it radically different. "It is not enough to say, for example, that we need more infrastructure. You have to say what specific infrastructure and at what cost."
He said the plan had been "rigorously prioritised" and he was optimistic it would be implemented because it had been costed and was based on a realistic assessment of how much money was available.